William Howard Taft is seen here campaigning for president in 1908 from the rear car of a train in Iowa. When a reporter once suggested that Taft was no President Theodore Roosevelt — the man whom Taft served faithfully as secretary of War — Taft replied that his goal was to “try to accomplish just as much without any noise.” Taft won the presidency in 1908, but he was defeated for re-election in 1912, owing greatly to Roosevelt’s third-party bid.